worldsfair | July 30, 2008
This got published a while back in the Walrus, but I just noticed that it's also now freely available online. 0.7%, in case, you're not aware is the hallmark figure suggested by Pearson as a target for foreign aid to developing nations.
Anyway, hope you enjoy. My favourite line, by the way, is:
You're Wilco playing to the High School Musical crowd.
worldsfair | July 30, 2008The response for the "Things to avoid at all cost when speaking publicly" post was awesome, and so, I've tried to formalize the suggestions into a fairly definitive list. The ones that didn't make it tended to be more debatable, although admittedly, there are few in the list right now that sort of sit on the threshold of that parameter (I'm think about stuff like "winging it" or being "arrogant").
Anyway, the list can be viewed at the SCQ, but I'll reprint it here for your viewing pleasure.
THINGS TO AVOID AT ALL COST WHEN SPEAKING PUBLICLY
- - -
Vomiting.
Aggressive sweating.
Evil…
bcohen | July 29, 2008An advertisement from Frank Scott's company (as reprinted in Ted Steinberg's American Green). Talk about religion and nature--Scott thought it was un-christian not to keep a manicured lawn.
Our lawn finally came in this year after three years in this house. We hadn't put much of an effort into it, I'll admit, though the original builder sought to. Our dirt is awful, just god awful. Ask my dad. He, the ardent gardener, is astonished by how poor the soil is. But this year the crabgrass grew in. And it looks good, real good. Plus it's helped prevent erosion from the occasional torrential…
bcohen | July 29, 2008The recent upswell in two-culture talk around Scienceblogs is driving me nuts (here's a good jumping in point -- oh wait, this one's better). One might question the so very many unquestioned assumptions in the current conversation about "what is science" and "what are the humanities" and "what does it mean to *know* science" and "what does it mean to *know* a poem," but instead I'll repost below something I contributed to The Education of Oronte Churm earlier this year. Call it the problem of the 13 culture divide.
_________________________________________________________________
I've never…
worldsfair | July 28, 2008
As plans for our student speaker conference are ramping up, we've been talking about ways to recruit excellent speakers to the project (this is where we're trying to host a university centric TED talks sort of thing). One idea, was to make some kind of video public service announcement that would direct people towards the application process as well as have a bit of web (as in hopefully viral) fun.
Anyway, I thought it might make an interesting slideshow to present things that you definitely should avoid at all costs when giving a talk. Some of these are obvious, some maybe not so much,…
bcohen | July 24, 2008...According to Ex-Marine Brad Collum.
And Kevin Fleming, his apparent interlocutor, as originally published here.
You thought we couldn't pull off three Apple product satires in a row? Not to mention the Dick Cheney one we didn't like as much so we didn't include in this reprint series. But it is timed-posts week after all, so there you are. Don't miss the iPod Zepto and iPod User's Guide, oh inconsistent reader. Then and only then check below the fold for a reprint from the iPod-as-a-deadly-weapon genre of literature.
"Eight Ways to Kill Someone By Using an iPod Nano According to Ex-…
bcohen | July 23, 2008This is one from the vault. Though not our vault. It was posted here in the original. But we offer a full reprint below the fold.
If you're a fidgety right-finger-on-that-mouse-scroller zooming-down-the-page reader (oh, did I nail it Mark?), don't miss chapter 18:
XVIII. Using the iPhone to learn whether superstring theory's positing of 10 dimensions (or 11 in M-theory) is viable in light of recent discoveries relating to dark matter
Enjoy.
"The iPhone: A User's Guide," by Darren Cahr.
Congratulations on your purchase of the 8-gigabyte iPhone from Apple Inc.! For the first time, you will be…
worldsfair | July 23, 2008
Just a quick note. Although it's been a while, a few of us are meeting for drinks on Friday night (July 25th) at The Revel Room in Gastown, Vancouver (8pm on). It just so happens that it's about the 500th Day Anniversary of the Science Scouts.
What's this? Well, it's this. Think: science plus badges plus raising a pint in celebration and you're getting close.
If you happen to be in the area feel free to drop by - better yet, let us know by replying to the facebook page.
bcohen | July 22, 2008Apple, Inc. joke week continues here during an all star World's-Fair-Scheduled-Posts-While-We're-Away Link Week. This one was originally published here, back in 2005, and remains one of my favorites of technology satire. (Oh, you have one too? What's yours? Is it Vonnegut's Player Piano? Cat's Cradle? No? I'm not even close? It isn't Vonnegut at all? Then what's your point, hombre? What the hell's your point?)
Your sample:
Q: I hate having to recharge my iPod Zepto every 12 minutes. Is there any way to extend the battery life?
A: Yes, if you keep your iPod Zepto's power button in…
worldsfair | July 22, 2008
I recently had a chance to catch the movie WALL-E, and I must say, it's very good. Still, I couldn't quite shake the irony of a show with (I thought) a fairly implicit environmental message that also happens to have logos and pics emblazon on all sorts of wasteful possibly disposable ware (like on toys, presumably various product tie-ins, fast food?, etc).
In fact, there's an interesting bit on this very thought courtesy of an interview with one of the movie's directors (at the Globe and Mail - although note: I actually found this at a salon.com's review).
G&M: This film has a big…
worldsfair | July 21, 2008
As of 2007, residents of Vancouver, on average used 295 litres of water per day (Per capita water consumption number is 542 litres per day factoring in non-residential water use).
(link)
After reading the above article, I did a bit of number crunching. The contrast in water consumption, say. between a place like Vancouver and a place like Bhopal, India is pretty striking.
In India, there are guidelines that have been put into place that have suggested a minimum of about 150 litres per day is needed to maintain appropriate living/health standards (see here, via the Central Public Health and…
worldsfair | July 18, 2008The SCQ children's book contest is back again.
link
We have been neglectful for the last 5 months, but here we are back again. Once again, the SCQ is seeking general submissions, where any submission that makes its way to our pages is a contender, The one that we receive before the end of August that we happen to like the best will be our victor. These pieces can be anything, serious, not serious, funny, not funny, pretty, not pretty, etc.
And the prize... Well, a really pretty dinosaur book, by award winner artist Christopher Wormell.
Again, send in your good stuff to tscq@interchange.…
bcohen | July 17, 2008New Zealand and Canada both "received a significant number of settlers from Scotland and Ireland. Did these groups bring a particular set of land management techniques with them that had a particular impact on the landscape and environment? Did a particular conservation ethic develop among Scottish and Irish settlers?"
Find out in this new environmental history podcast. (Listen here)
What's more, read a review of the podcast here.
bcohen | July 16, 2008At "The Missing Link." In three parts. By historian Elizabeth Green Musselman.
Part I (her episode 8): The Ghost in the Machine. Or, the deep history of scientific method, and how the rules evolved to the point where intelligent design cannot follow them.
Part II: Evolution, Communism and Other "Dirty" Words. Or, How did the Civil War and the Cold War affect the acceptance of evolution in the United States?
Part III: People of the Book. Or, how people in some of the world's other religious traditions - particularly Jews, Catholics, and Muslims - have positioned themselves in the evolution-…
bcohen | July 15, 2008Not just floating around the northern Pacific Ocean, it's now on podcast too.
image from Greenpeace via Treehugger
To the likes of the New York Times Magazine "Sea of trash" and Harper's "Moby Duck", please welcome Jody Roberts' voice to the bibliography of garbage swirling around the sea. It's all here in this Distillation's podcast, "Cleaning Up", from the Chemical Heritage Foundation.
worldsfair | July 14, 2008A few days ago, I had a chance (with other ScienceBloggers) to check out Randy Olson's new flick, Sizzle. Now let me first start by saying that I'm hardly a movie aficionado - my favourite movie is still Star Wars, and to be honest the last few movies I saw before this one were Camp Rock, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Kung Fu Panda - can you guess we have kids at my household?). Still, I think I do have a decent handle on the ins and outs of communicating science, which ultimately this movie has as a central device.
The movie itself is a mockumentary and highlights Randy's plight to produce…
bcohen | July 14, 2008A cropped excerpt below from the full strip called "Faith," at Cat and Girl (do go see the whole thing):
bcohen | July 13, 2008Memoir
Orwell says somewhere that no one ever writes the real story of their life.
The real story of a life is the story of its humiliations.
If I wrote that story now--
radioactive to the end of time--
people, I swear, your eyes would fall out, you couldn't peel
the gloves fast enough
from your hands scorched by the firestorms of that shame.
Your poor hands. Your poor eyes
to see me weeping in my room
or boring the tall blonde to death.
Once I accused the innocent.
Once I bowed and prayed to the guilty.
I still wince at what I once said to the devastated widow.
And one October afternoon,…